Disgraceful
I think it’s time for someone to say it: The Arabs have conducted themselves disgracefully during this war. The whole world is now filled with contempt and scorn for them.
There was the propaganda that began with a semblence of plausibility and degenerated into farce. Al-Jazeera and the BBC convinced the Arab world that the Iraqis were defeating the Americans, in part by taking Iraqi TV as gospel truth. Ordinary Arabs were only too happy to believe the lies. What does it say about a culture that it can deny reality so easily? Every Arab war has had the same farcical propaganda and grandiose statements from Arab leaders. There was Egypt’s claim, in the 1967 six-day war, that Israeli planes were falling from the sky “like flies.” It wasn’t until the end of the six-day war that the Arabs realized the stunning humiliation they had suffered. More recently there was Saddam’s bravado about the “Mother of All Battles” in 1991. And then there’s the greatest PR joke of all time – the Iraqi information minister, indeed the quintessential Arab from the war coverage – a magnificent liar who was a hero in the Arab world when he held forth. Arab denials of reality do little to help the rest of the world see them as honest partners.
Then there were the dirty tactics used by the Iraqis. Regime officials on TV were the only Iraqis wearing uniforms. In the field, their soldiers discarded their uniforms and fought like savages. They hid weapons caches in schools, hospitals and mosques. They took children hostage and forced their parents to fight. They pretended to surrender and opened fire on their compassionate captors. They used women and children as human shields, driving them in front of their formations. They used children to retrieve weapons from the battlefield. They took women and children hostage in the suburbs of Baghdad. They tortured and killed POWs, including female prisoners. They used pregnant women and deceptions in suicide bombing attacks. Rarely in the history of warfare has a combat force displayed such disregard for every law of human decency. And the Arab street defended these tactics and cheered on Saddam’s thugs.
And now there is the aftermath of the war. On tasting freedom, the first thing the Iraqis have done is… loot. Not just government facilities, but homes and shops as well. Worst of all they’re looting hospitals in Baghdad! Mobs of Iraqis have displayed even more disgraceful behavior. The barbarians have just hacked a Shiite cleric to pieces in the holy city of Najaf.
The whole world can see how the Arabs have conducted themselves in this war. People all over the world are going to wonder if the Arabs deserve anything but scorn and distrust.
I don’t feel comfortable saying these things. Until this war, I was willing to assume that Arabs, like everyone else, shared certain universal values and would respect the fundamental laws of human decency if only they were given a chance. I was even somewhat sympathetic to how they feel about Israel. Now my sympathies are entirely with the Israelis. The Arabs are going to have to do a great deal of work to win back my sympathy and the sympathies of the world. Let’s hope the free Iraqis will provide a vastly better example than the Arabs have provided so far.
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